Q & A - Live Chat with Robert Scheer

After the brilliant Rolling Stone article by Michael Hastings, President Barack Obama has no valid option other than to fire Gen. Stanley McChrystal. Not because of the dozen outrageous anti-administration verbal gaffes which have been reported, but rather because this definitive piece on the “Runaway General” establishes the man in charge of the Afghanistan misadventure as an egotistical flake whose half-baked Afghan war-fighting strategy should never have been endorsed in the first place. It is McChrystal’s policy of counterinsurgency (COIN) that must be fired more than the man who exemplifies its irrationality.

It was the 66-page McChrystal Report that provided Obama with the justification for escalating rather than ending the decade-long Afghanistan war: winning the hearts and minds of people who have no intention of opening either to our tender mercies. They don’t like us or trust us and probably think we smell funny and our food tastes awful. Such profound cultural differences are what make the world an interesting place, but the continuing arrogance of centuries of U.S. imperial policy insists that the rest of the world wants to be just like us.

More important, winning the affection of Afghans and turning their society into a model of Western-style secular democracy have nothing to do with the original purpose of the Afghanistan invasion—to react to the 9/11 attacks. Al-Qaida has moved on to safer havens than the Taliban could provide, most significantly in Pakistan, and “victory” in Afghanistan no longer has a serious U.S. national security purpose. We are embroiled in a civil war—indeed, according to the McChrystal Report, several such wars—and all we are accomplishing is backing one gang of hopelessly corrupt and venal warlords against another.

The Taliban are not necessarily the worst of the lot, and their former allegiance to al-Qaida has been effectively severed. There was nothing in the McChrystal report to indicate that the Taliban and their allies in Afghanistan are now anything but homegrown in their preoccupations, and the appeal of the insurgency is a matter of local grievances. As McChrystal stated in his original report: “Afghans are frustrated and weary after eight years without evidence of the progress they anticipated.”

The Rolling Stone article makes clear that the frustration has only increased with each civilian casualty and poignantly captures McChrystal’s own dilemma of attempting to hold down that death toll without increasing the risks for the troops that he dispatches:

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“After nine years of war, the Taliban simply remains too strongly entrenched for the U.S. military to openly attack. The very people that COIN seeks to win over—the Afghan people—do not want us there. Our supposed ally, President [Hamid] Karzai, used his influence to delay the offensive, and the massive influx of aid championed by McChrystal is likely only to make things worse. ‘Throwing money at the problem exacerbates the problem,’ says Andrew Wilder, an expert at Tufts University who has studied the effect of aid in southern Afghanistan. ‘A tsunami of cash fuels corruption, delegitimizes the government and creates an environment where we’re picking winners and losers’—a process that fuels resentment and hostility among the civilian population. So far, counterinsurgency has succeeded only in creating a never-ending demand for the primary product supplied by the military: perpetual war. There is a reason that President Obama studiously avoids using the word ‘victory’ when he talks about Afghanistan. Winning, it would seem, is not really possible. Not even with Stanley McChrystal in charge.”

Hats off to Rolling Stone for doing the tough, on-the-scene reporting that the mass media increasingly avoid. The lionization of McChrystal in much of the reporting which ignored his egregious role in the cover-up of torture in Iraq and his key role in distorting the facts in order to politically exploit the “friendly fire” death of Pat Tillman, a true hero, has been a journalistic low point.

No better was President Obama’s embrace of this man who has now betrayed him. One hopes that Obama now responds to the serious concerns this article raises about his failed policy and not merely to the barbs from the general he once so admired. An indication that he will not do so was provided Tuesday by his press secretary, Robert Gibbs, who relayed that the president will say “it is time for everyone involved to put away their petty disagreements, put aside egos, and get to the job at hand.” If that job is tantamount to anything but quickly getting out of Afghanistan, they might as well keep McChrystal in charge, for he remains a true believer in sinking deeper into the quagmire.

Ofersince:
I appreciate your diligence on this but try to do more research into the guys who are really pulling the strings of Bush One and Two, Clinton, and now
Obama.
Pardon the pun intended but all these guys (including
Cheney), are ‘bush league’.

In the hicago Sun-Times, of August 19, 1992, Evans and
Novack reported that an anonymous Bush adviser explained:
“If Hssein lets us into his defense ministry, then we ought to go a step further. Maybe we demand access to his
private offices. We will continue to escalte as long as
necessary, and sometime he will say ‘no’ or admit total
impotence. When he says ‘no’ we bomb.”

The aim, of course, was and is twofold. First, as the government states, we seek a new leader with whom we can
“do business” to take Hussein’s place. Out with the new
Hussein (now too rambunctious), in with the old
(in a new body). Second, we seek to demonstrate our
remarkable capacity to deploy military might against an
enemy with no capacity for defense at all.

Ofersince:
my prediction is that you will change your mind about departing for long. OK, take a siesta.
If you truly want to make a difference and not bow to the Globalist Agenda, then you will soon return and continue in the fray.
In the meanwhile, I highly suggest that you watch this Salbuchi clip and then go over to youtube and research him there. He’s been thru this in Argentina and has much to offer to the Resistance Movement.

I’m going to plant a heart in the earth
water it with love from a vein
I’m going to praise it with the push of muscle
and care for it in the sound of all dimensions.
I’m going to leave a heart in the earth
so it may grow and flower
a heart that throbs with longing
that adores everything green
that will be strength and nourishment for birds
that will be the sap of plants and mountains.
I’m going to spit a heart into the earth
with all miseries and rebellions
a heart that procures galaxies
tht belches drums of all tongues
a garden of botanical lights
like a morror turning toward the sun.
I’m going to feel a heart in the earth
above the black white and yellow earth
above flesh of all colors.
I’m going to cast a heart over the earth
a conversation of anguish and hope
above all a heart without ties or timetables
without cufflinks or valises or numbers
a heart that will not learn
equations of deviations
atomic theory or relativity
that knows nothing of nuts and bolts,
that is not acquainted with watches
a hert that uses no credit cards
that hangs no diplomas
that attends no cocktail parties or banquets
an open heart that will never have doors
I’m going to write a heart that knows no arithmetic
that won’t leave some to one side
and others on the floor in fractions
that suffers only childbirth and feigned illness
I’m going to fly a heart like a comet
one of blood and cosmic dust
a mixing of earth with stars
a heart that has no country
that knows no borders
a heart that will never be fired
that has never signed a single check
that has never had a strongbox
a heart, unnerving, unnameable,
something simple and sweet,
a heart that has loved

I wish you the best. Yes, I am still on schedule
to leave Truth Dig on the 1st, happy to report that to
you. I am going to go back to my self-induced isolation
from current events and political comment. Gardening and
cycling to occupy my mind. I am only sorry that I let
emotions rule when I burnt all my books after the blow-
job impeachment. Oh well, they are replaceable, health
isn’t.
I understand more than ever now that the U.S. economy
will be dominated by war and conquest without change
coming from within, it is therefore useless to comment on
such policy. Centrist political policy got us here and
I see that this process is not going to change until
the ecology forces this change upon us.
Good luck and good health…....OFERSINCE72….....

How does the pay and benefits compare for someone
killing women and children for Blackwater along side
someone killing women and children for Uncle Sam’s
finest? Who gets the better retirement benefits?
Finally, how much influence has Hollyweird’s violent movies had on the cognitions and behaviors of both
groups?

Heir Hitler:
OK, my turn to sample the ‘crow’...I just came across
your tardy response here but we are still on the wrong thread to continue: let’s carry on at Scheer’s
‘Spillage’ site.
In the meanwhile, do a little more google research on what the Russians have been researching for several years. (They DO have a little more expertise in deep drilling you realize..)

Still ducking the real question heh? Post the specific insult, Eliza requested, but you have yet to do so. Yes, I have insulted you since, but you are a liar and a cretin and deserve such. Filling threads with multiple posts, each one saying nothing.

June 28….two more days and your promise to be gone July 1st comes due…ta ta.

Golly, ABIOTICdave, you sho’ nuff showed me! The presence of PAHs in Titan’s atmosphere certainly proves that the oil here on Earth is ABIOTIC. And since we know that carbon dioxide is emitted from volcanoes, we have no choice but to deny that it is emitted by cows during respiration.

FOR THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE ORIGIN.

And I know what you’re thinking. . . the irony of that last statement and all. But you’ll notice that I didn’t posit a population of subterranean cows from the center of the Earth as the second source of that CO2. Nope, just regular ol’ surface-dwelling cows—the ones we know exist. It’s the ol’ Occam’s Razor approach.

Say, let’s have a quiz. Based on the point I’ve made above, pick the answer that best completes the following analogy:

DIAMOND:I don’t remotely believe that any of our political leadership would introduce legislation to reinstate the draft. Nor, though I do think the idea of National Service isn’t a a bad one, would I, for the very obvious reasons you stated, want to see the draft return.

What I am “braying” about, is the separation between the actual day to day reality and horror of war being carried by less than one percent of American families, while the other numbed out ninety nine receive the option of having no involvement at all. I believe this cause and effect insulation is one of the major “pernicious” factors that allow our politicians to keep the war game going. It allows American Guardsmen and our professional miltary to be placed in harms way for corporate profit and purpose while hiding behind the flag. The huge reliance on mercenary forces and “private” contractors for special security ops in the current conflict speak to the problem. They could never get away with an upfront Xe (Blackwater)invasion. Of course, they would if they could.

The purpose of my comment was to hammer the fact that those who voice strong moral/intellectual opinions about the war and even our veterans groups are a marginalized minority. A call for reinstatement of the draft, prone to evil manipulation as it is, would put everybody in the fight and bring the war home.

Because you are liar Ardee, thats why.
I don’t need to tell the rest of Truth Dig, you know
what I was responding too, and that I kept it to that
thread, ElizaLouisa brought it here…

Of course , you will label my postings as you do,
you are a corporate shill for the Democrats Ardee,
Your postings say absolutly nothing. That is exactly why
you are the names that I called you, puky dum, dum

You’re ignoring a very important fact, redhorse. Conscription is a pernicious evil and a flagrant violation of a citizen’s right to decide if their country should be involved in a war at all let alone a war that is a trumped up lie and is really about getting control of oil and turning the Middle East into a collection of American colonies. You can bray all you like, no American government would dare to re-introduce conscription because the backlash would see them out of office and bring back fighting in the streets, not necessarily in that order. If you want to understand the facts watch ‘The US versus John Lennon’. Lots to chew on there: especially the fact that 40% of the young men who died in Vietnam died in the years after Nixon was re-elected in 1972 specifically on a promise to end the war. He didn’t, he escalated it hell for leather. What’s going on in Afghanistan reminds me of something I read somewhere about World War I. A soldier writing home said ‘They keep telling us we’re winning the war but the war is winning and will go on winning’. Or words to that effect, but I think you catch his drift.

Really concerned about the state of our military leadership? Want a quick end to Imperial War, D.C. political imbroglio, a tempest-in-a-teapot propagandist MSM?

Let all the “so” patriotic tearjerk, phoney kneejerk, flag wavers and their kids get a chance at the fight. Let America put its’ ass where its’ mouth is and put the nation IN THE WAR. If you care about our hero’s, be a hero too!! Why should our brave National Guardsmen and volunteers have to stand alone and return for tour of duty and horror five, eight and ten times. REINSTATE THE DRAFT FOR BOTH MEN AND WOMEN NOW!!

Lets see who shows up and suits up and who’s screaming “bloody murder stop the war” in the streets.

It’s a direct personal, not, an intellectual, solution, and, we’d all be a part of it. Call your Congressman and demand a new draft today!! Problem solved.

Your explanation to Elisa is another in a history of ridiculous and stupid postings. She asked you to post the specific insult I gave and you dodged that hot potato like you do all the others.

You are a product of your own history here and not any object of insult or ridicule. You have brought that on yourself with a long and sad history of many multiple postings, most of which are classified as ravings and bring no knowledge and shine no light on any subject.

This is to let you know that I agree with all the three points you have outlined in your above Re. In fact,the above post of yours is one of the best I have read on this thread so far. Hence,I have felt obligated to address this post to you and thank you for the thoughts and effort,inspite of my disagreement with you in time past.

You really have hit the Jackpot when you said the following comments in point(2):

“By death squad tactics and a high volume of Civilians causalties McCrystal was able to terrorize the Iraq population into fearful submission,this why he was put in charge of the Afghan war.”

I do remember what he had done in Iraq and where he had done it very clearly,but I kept my mouth shut lest being accused,justly or injustly, of “unpatriotic?”,especially at the time he did what he did(50 plus percent of Americans approved of what Cheney/Bush and cohorts were doing). I wish I had the guts of protesting then,sothat I needed not to regret it now. But,that is life,one regrets when regret is useless and usually it is too late.

Then you correctly have concluded in point(2)with the following comments:

“But such tactics proved counterproductive and as McCrystal had no talent other than brutalizing civilians,his presence was a big negative and a big reminder of a bad history.”

I watched the Pat Tillman hearings live as they were
happening, one couldn’t help but be impressed with both
Pat’s brother and his mother..

These hearings also helped me understand that
no matter what, no matter how much truth came out and
no matter how concerned that the Democrat lawmakers
sounded at these hearings, they were not going to take
these hearings to their proper ending and that the MIC
is always going to be protected.
The Democrats held many such hearings when they first
won the majority from the Repubs in 2006, all ended up
to be big public publicity stunts,...
Just as the BP hearings that Markey an others are having
will end up…...good public publicity with little to no
outcome

As I try to ruminate all the comments made about Pat tillman, the old Indian sage quote keeps springing to
mind: “Don’t judge someone til you’ve walked a mile in
their moccasins…”
Most of our ‘intelligence’, we accumulate from sources we believe in or trust, but as Will Durant once said,
“much of history is guessing and the rest is prejudice.”
The older I get, the more truth I find in his statement.

Having known Bob Scheer for more than 35 years I am still grateful for his views,
especially at this horrific moment. I just read Bob Herbert’s piece in today’s NY
Times. I wonder how many people of our generation can live with the idea of
having supported this president as he slips and slides from one nightmare to the
next. I KNOW there are thousands and thousands of like-minded souls of many
generations who must feel this way. But what to do? Take to the streets again for
cable news? I have never felt more helpless and hopeless. As an artist I can make
posters, develop a visual blog, hoping to feel engaged with whomever I can reach.
I am doing and will do this, but I wish I felt like it would make a dent. I guess one
does what one can, but there has to be more. I can only take so much of the smugness of Oberman, Maddow and Matthews. Are they energizing anybody? They become noisy entertainment. The day that I say the same thing about Jon Stewart (and his writers) will be the end of it. Part of me wants to take the vote back, but I don’t think much would have been different. There are hardly any politicians who will Stand and Deliver.

From Wikipedia -Pat Tillman
” ? Army doctors told the investigators that these wounds suggested murder and urged them to launch a criminal investigation.
? It has been revealed that there were never-before-mentioned US snipers in the second group that had encountered Tillman’s squad.Tillman’s diary was never returned to his family and its whereabouts are not publicly known.
According to Tillman’s mother, a friend of Tillman had arranged a meeting with author Noam Chomsky, a prominent critic of American foreign and military policy, to take place after his return from Afghanistan. Chomsky has confirmed this.” Perhaps Tillman should have kept this fact to himself.

What we do know is what his brother said, that when
Bush called on the War Against Terror, their mother
(a pacifist) asked hers sons to join a find out what
this War On Terror was about.
We know that Pat had made contact while in Iraq to
talk to Chomskey when he got back to the states.
He was murdered before that came to pass…
So we will never know what kind of here Patwas.except
Pat Tillman is still my Hero,
no matter how he died.
If it weren’t for these damn resource wars.
Today, he would still be alive.

They would like us to forget him,
like his story didn’t exist.
But I will never forget him,
and continue to resist…..........ME…......

Pat Tillman is no more a “true hero” than Obama is a (Nobel) Peace Maker. All Pat did was one day decide to put on his silly uniform and shiny boots and go kill people he’d never met and had no grievance against. Sane people call that murder because that’s exactly what it is.

“It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.” - Voltaire

“Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities also has the power to make you commit atrocities.” – Voltaire

Exactly ElisaLouisa…. I was only making a point to
Ardee, he cast the name calling stone , not me…
I just got tired of letting the name calling roll off my back….

This isn’t the proper thread to go into Democrat
racism right here at home with black Americans, however,
if care to debate this and show me where Democrats have
offered any thing more for black Americans than republicans, I welcome that debate.

Thanks for your response ofersince72 and for being civil. The only racist action I see are these wars in the mideast. I ask myself, would we use drones to kill native populations in Europe? I respond, No. The fact that there is a large Muslim/Arab population in countries where we are waging war (please no statistics) makes the suffering that accompanies such action more acceptable to the American people. Thus the conclusion that such wars are racist and since there are no sizable protests there is the possibility that we are all racist but not in the sense that any one person should be singled out.

GENERAL DISCHARGE…sounds contagious like Discharge from VD or
Gonorhea discharge Oh Well! Another One bites the dust,
Must feel strange 40 years in military getting fired by a white/black communitee leader,
who has never seen military time or experience
I`m sure The General is thinking, a finger to the, not so White-white House.
I wonder how Obama`s Wife`s vegetable garden is doing on the south lawn!
New but old General.
Now we get the one that, keeled over for the Senate-Press-C-Span etc. Medical clearence for that young Man. “If it ain`t one thing, it`s another” Says Obama! Acid rain in Louisiana yes raining oil. Send the Army McChrystal to evacuate the coast line! Punishment for treason of the press! Army soap operas!still Smell! In a month or two the General will have plenty of time to write a book or comic, make millions $! What a Circus! The American Dream! Bomb Baby Bomb!

I have been called so many names since the very first
day that I posted on Truth Dig, I can’t remember them all.

At that, I never responed with name calling of my own,
nor did ever have some one defend me as you are doing
now for Ardee. My only response for the many names that
I was called, was to do multible postings which proved
much more irritating to those calling me names than lowering my self the name-calling level.

Ardee’s little comment, struck me wrong, I responded.
Besides, the Democrats race policy has been no better
than Republicans for the last forty years, yet, all I
see from most of the Journalist contributors and responses
here on Truth Dig, is a relentless attack on Republicans
for being racist…....Both parties are racist, equally.

No Comment.
Have you considered that most likely NOTHING is going to work militarily? This effort is doomed, and sooner we pull out completely the better. We are just wasting lives and money. There is nothing for us to win there. They are not going to become like us.

Isn’t he amazing, running 7 miles a day, hardly ever eating,
and getting practically no sleep? I mean, any ordinary person
keeping such a regimen would probably start exhibiting
strange behaviors and bizarre lapses of judgment.

offersince72 Please post Ardee’s comments that led you to the conclusion he is a racist. Ardee is a strong supporter of a cause and that is one of the definitions for “‘partisan” in the dictionary. Racist is another thing entirely and that word does not fit the Ardee we have come to know here. Calling him a “slut” goes one step further and of course, is so out of place it is a reflection on the poster.

From where did you get the notion that ardee is a racist and partisan Democrat?
Ardee is neither a racist nor a partisan and I am sure there is a mixup someplace.
I value and agree with many of your posts, but not all of them, and I hope you change your mind and stay with us sharing your opinions and wisdom with us.

Pat Tillman, the idiot hero. To elevate this idiot to the government coined “hero warriors” instead of what they really are just “grunts”, soldiers, troops, marines, swabbies, airmen, Assassins, cannon fodder and suckers. Tillman was presented with a multitude of very viable options and he choose the idiot option, deciding not to place the well being of his family first. It was like God was gving him a hint, Pat don’t go, but Tillman choose his ego option.That’s free will. He is a hero only if used as an example for how to be an idiot.Tillman was not only killed by his fellow troops but his family was abused afterwards and the Pentagon mouthpiece was none other than McChrystal who was promoted within weeks afterwards. It is likely he was promoted because of his covering up the real Tillman incident.

ardee and ofersince:
Come on guyz ad hominem remarks are to be found at the Sophomoric level; Not if we’re on the path to wisdom and a higher level of consciousness.
Set the path and perhaps others will follow.

I seldom agree with the offerings of GRYM so this one ,which has my full agreement, is worth the reprint.

“Pat Tillman placed a budding career, and a potential life-time fortune, on hold to serve a cause he believed in. A cause, according to him, that would benefit a great deal more than himself. We may disagree with that cause, however, I can’t think of a better example of a “true hero”.”

Oh and for the soon to be gone thank goodness ofersince who spouted:
“However, since ARDEE is the latest to spew out names
at me…..let me tell all what I think of him…
Ardee is a kiss assin racist slut…for the democrats “

Words have meaning to most educated folks, but not apparently to you. Im a racist? prove it ass wipe with one cut and paste from my hundreds of posts here that can be interpreted as racist, slut..maybe. The fact that I am one of the posters here who consistently condemns the democrats escapes you, as does fact, logic and reality.

amazing all the intense exchange over this, as if he even mattered - clearly the
General’s one more useful fool in the heap of useful fools from Arlington to
Pennsylvania Avenue to Langly - shadow operatives in service to the global
oligarchy make the calls - useful fools take the falls- can’t run a senseless global
war of terror any other way - has to be senseless at every turn with terror for hire, just a phone call away, lest the citizen punters start figuring out WTF is going on

Heir Hitler:
No response??? Cat got cher tongue or maybe still
suckin’ on dat d ar ‘crow dinner’...
You still haven’t given a good explanation of where
and how the humongous oceans of oil got to the depths of 40 and 50000 feet as well as Saturn’s moon Titan.
Oh, and b4 you respond, you may want to look up Col.
L. Fletcher Prouty on youtube: He doesn’t exactly measure up/down to the tinfoil hat variety that you just love to lambaste.
I still suspect youz ta be a ‘dupe’, plant, or jus
‘floatin down de Nile.
And since this is technically the wrong thread, perhaps u’d like to continue our little dialog over
on Scheer’s earlier report, ‘Rape and Spillage’ where you can find a number of my responses to other doubting Thomases.

One hopes that Obama now responds to the serious concerns this article raises

Hah!

McChrystal deliberately got himself fired so he will no longer have to be associated with the putrid disaster in KarzaiLand that will end in defeat for the USA. Little Lord Fauntleroy, aka, Obama, however, always the boy scout, will now go around telling everybody what a tough guy he is. “I fired that guy, that general. Now I’m Shaft.” No, you’re not. You’re the political version of Barry White. Jacked up on testosterone, lies and his own poisoned ego, Obama will plunge further into fantasyland as Petraeus drips poison into his ear.

Heir Hitler:
Youz done fergot one more leetle beetie item:
TITAN…
Gee whillackers,..doz dar dinos must have discovered
intra solar travel or our ‘scientists’ haven’t been leveling wid us dat dis ABSOLUTELY proves dat dar is or waz life out dar.
Oh, yeah, one other little factoid. The issue is now
easily provable from the precise science of the assay.
Why is this not being discussed?

So, iz u a ‘plant’ or just floatin’ in total denial?
You either don’t believe in ‘global elitists’ and still think Obama is pulling his own strings, or u
r absolutely in on de ‘good buddy system’...
Vive a la ordo ab chao, n’est pas?

One of the great things about the Congress giving up the power to declare ‘war’
is that any and ever President can be ‘at war’, serve in ‘a time of war’ and be a
‘war-time President’.

All the latitude to trample on civil rights, kill, maim, destroy lives, etc. is
enjoyed and virtually no constraints are placed on the President by Congress.

It’s basically up to the citizens to put pressure on Congress and the President to
end the insanity, but, of course, that cant happen. Like Congress, which cannot
stop the President from ‘going to war’, citizens can stop neither Congress nor
the President.

Are we consigned as a nation to continual ‘war fare’? To constantly being ‘at
war’, ‘a time of war’, etc ?

It is not only McChrystal who owes Obama ‘an apology’, it is McChrystal and
Obma who owe the nation ‘an apology’. Obama appointed a man who was
behind the cover-up and then the lies about Pat Tillman’s murder by ‘friendly
fire’ (so we know what kind of a ‘man of honor’ McChrystal is); the man who
was appointed turned out to not be a ‘man of honor’ (really?, but a double-
dealer and double-crosser). The man who appointed the man is a ‘war time
President’ - like all Presiedents since we invaded Grenada and the Panama
Canal), and, so, we must ‘support him’.

This whole scenario is absolutely bizarre.

When can we expect an apology from Obama for accelerating a pointless and
stupid war?

“Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen said the U.S. won’t know if the strategy is working until the end of the year.” NYT 6/24/20 acc.to AP

…. On or about December 20, when the hearts and minds of the American people are largely occupied with Christmas shopping as usual, Admiral Mike Mullen will take out the Bible which he always carries in his uniform pocket, and it will magically open to page 101 of the new New Testament where he will read:
“This is to announce to you and your people that the Afghan War is over.
“Verily I say unto you that it ended quite some months ago, but I guess you haven’t noticed.
“Don’t ask questions. Just do as I say, for I am your Higher Commander.
“Go at once to Mr. Karzai and tell him that as far as you are concerned he can talk to the Taliban all he wants, make any deal he chooses, because you
and your guys are finished. Just don’t let the Taliban call it a “victory” because you will need to use that word when you get back home.
“Tell him you wish him luck. Bow politely and leave. If he curses you in English, tell him to fuck off. That at the time you thought you were
doing the right thing.
“Then pull your troops out of battle position a.s.a.p. and return to the U.S. where you belong.
“Postscript: Thou shalt not kill!”

Withdraw is always at some vague date a year to 18 months in the future, and tied to some milestone or conditions.

Bush did this for years in Iraq. Obama has continued doing this in Iraq. And to me, that means that just because Obama is talking vaguely about withdrawing next year sometime, that does not mean that this is going to happen.

The American track record is that this milestone will be very quietly forgotten and that instead a year from now we’ll be hearing more vague plans another year or 18 months into the future.

1) McChrystal was on a downward spiral throughout the winter and spring. He was loosing ground to the Taliban. At the same time he was stymied in organizing a credible offensive. Moreover, McChrystal had gone native issuing rules of engagement that endangered American troops while protecting Afghan insurgents and lavishing cash pay outs to warlords and Taliban alike. The Rolling Stone article was only the tip of the iceberg of McChrystals problems, it was preceded by his loss of effectiveness.

2) Barack Obama, whether or not he ever served in the military is more focused and aggressive in military matters than most of his opponents. All you have to do is recall that in the late spring of 2008 he called for American attacks against the AlQaida be carried into Pakistan if there was credible, actionable intelligence and the government of Islamabad refused to act on it. Bush and McClain criticized him ruthlessly, until Bush was persuaded by the Pentagon do follow Obama’s advice. As President Obama has pushed the Pakistanis and the Pentagon to go after the enemy in wild borderlands of Pakistan.

Nonetheless, President Obama faced with the Pentagon’s seemingly endless Long War and the country’s limited resources has soldiered up and gave his generals an ultimatum. Show real progress in Afghanistan within 18 months or start getting out. Petraeus accepted the challenge. The President’s real toughness dismays the left and drives the right crazy. He received his combat training in the tough school of Chicago politics where routinely people tarted out in pretty uniforms are chewed up and spit out daily. If you doubt that, just look at the side of the road where McChrystal was spit out.

GoRightYoungMan—-I ask the question because I don’t
know what the author of the article meant. Is he
a true hero because he was good at playing a sport?
Was he a hero because he sacrificed his life to save
the lives of others? From what I recall from the
incident he was killed by his own troops. That
doesn’t make you a hero. A hero to me is a poor
Iraqi citizen trying to protect his wife and children
from a group of foreign invaders.

Golly, you’re right. The several-hundred-million-year accumulation of biomass over the 148,940,000 km2 landmass of the earth could never account for all that there oil. (Oops, there I go again with statistics! Who really knows what the TRUE area of the landmass is, eh?)And biomass alone certainly couldn’t account for all that there coal neither, huh?

And those sure are some deep oil deposits down there at “40, 50,000 feet or more.”

Q: Is it possible that some of the oil occurs at more shallow depths (like pretty much all of it)?

A: Yes, if you believe all them statistics generated from oil drilling over the past hunnert years or so.

But the truth is, they is a huge oil-depth conspiracy going on because the status quo requires that biomass gets all the credit. Ohhhhhhh LORDY!!! If’n the word got out that oil was a perkalatin’ up from deep down inside dat mean ol’ mantle, the secret organization of Dinosaurists would rise up in revolt!!! It would be like that there END OF DAYS what the Bible propherizified!!!!!!

We bes’ keep quiet about this, ABIOTICdave. Lie low. Jus’ keep wearin’ dat dare sandwich-board conspiracy sign and tin foil hat. Dat way you can be hidin’ in plain sight till the time is right to strike a blow against the Dinosaurists.

In my mind every young man and woman who volunteers for the armed services is truly a hero. These are some of the best people America has to offer. Most of these people put in more effort in a week than most on this Web space put in over the course of a year. They are fantastic!

Pat Tillman placed a budding career, and a potential life-time fortune, on hold to serve a cause he believed in. A cause, according to him, that would benefit a great deal more than himself. We may disagree with that cause, however, I can’t think of a better example of a “true hero”.

Yeah, me, too, I’d like to know how Pat Tillman was a true hero? As far as I know, he didn’t do anything spectacular, did he? Abandoning a lucrative career in football for hunt for Bin Laden (or whatever) doesn’t make him a hero, does it? Nor does being young and good-looking, either. I think there’s some mushy sentimental factor at work in the writer’s assessment of Tillman’s stature. I’m baffled and I want to hear from you, Mr. Scheer: why was Pat Tillman a true hero?

‘The Fog of War’: A very penetrating film about a repentant Robert McNamara. If u haven’t seen it, do it.
McChrystal saw the handwriting all over the wall as I noted below and didn’t wish to go down in history as
a Gen Westmoreland.
Probably sees himself as a reincarnated Douglas MacArthur and his visions of running for office.

It’s nothing new for the military arm of any government to distrust, even despise the civilian leadership. But the complaints that politicians would take seriously the policy for which they seek to implement and deliberate over them seems immature on behalf of the general and his aides.

How quickly was suppose to happen? As if asking for 30,000 troops has no political or other consequences.

Even the most polarized of opponents know the perspectives of the other, and the steps needed to validated them..

Those of us who were around when we went to war in Vietnam know a lost cause
when we see it. The troops know it and the generals know it. Obama will become
another LBJ if he doesn’t cut his losses by this time next year. McChrystal is an
enigma, how in the world did this guy get to four star status? Usually guys like
him are weeded out when they hit one star or below. Why Obama put such stock in
this guy is another question. Kennedy was smart enough after the Bay of Pigs and
the Cuban missile crisis to mistrust the military and their motives. Obama needs
to learn that and learn it fast. Lincoln had no problem running through a new
general every six months until he found a winner. Lesson to new presidents -
clean house when you get the chance. Start with your own team in place from top
to bottom. We are doomed in Afghanistan just like the Brits and the Russians were
and the Russians had 500,000 troops in that hell hole. Get our Mr. President.

“We are embroiled in a civil war—indeed, according to the
McChrystal Report, several such wars—and all we are accomplishing is
backing one gang of hopelessly corrupt and venal warlords against
another.”

The next guy to be fired will be Michael Hastings of Rolling Stone who violated the unspoken, unwritten rule that the press will never reveal the criminality, incompetence and punk vulgarity of the corporate-military-wall street-political oligarchy who rule/own this hapless country. Gen McChrystal-meth was a totally batshit psycho killer who ran the death squads in Irag before moving on to the stinkhole of Afghanistan Bananastan. The guy ate one meal a day and slept for 4 hrs a night. He may well indeed have been a vampire. Obama was/is simply a weak reed, a tool of the toxic establishment. Afghanistan Bananastan is the geopolitical equivalent of the BP oil platfrom explosion and oil leak. The gulf well will continue to leak until there is not another drop of oil in it. That may be 15 years from now. By that time all life in the gulf will be croaked. The Afghan permanent war could well go on just as long. The sad fate of both dreadful encounters will be world catastrophe and countless dead. The definition of insanity is repeating the same fiascos over and over expecting a different result. Good morning Vietnam!! Hello Afghanistan Bananastan!! Boom! Boom! Ain’t it great to be crazy!! We are soooo buggered!!!

Consider this, you pessimists: Major events are working in our favor, informing and shocking millions into an understanding of major problems:
1. The long failure in Afghanistan, the nagging lag of positive conclusions in Iraq and Israel’s intransigence.
2. The humongous oil spill on top of nagging consciousness that global warming is real.
3. The mining “accident” and the oil spill as striking examples of corporate irresponsibility.
4. The ecoomic meltdown as a punishing failure of the capitalist economic “system” that creates grosser and grosser differences between rich and poor.
5. McChrystal as military “fool” in the king’s court, betraying the hidden tendency of military frustrations and a resulting desire to “take over” the civilian government and turn it into open-faced fascism to “get things done” and preserve “law and order.”
6. The mixed messages of both Republicans and Democrats who have sold out to corporate power.
7. The scandalous decisions coming out of the Supreme Court favoring corporation funding of political campaigns.

Much more, and the plum of democracratic opportunity will not only drop into our hands, but everybody and his uncle will suddenly decide that plums taste delicious. They will wake up and start shaking the tree. Naysayers will be forced out of business and “another world will become entirely possible.”

He who cannot read the signs in the wind will miss a chance to take off and fly—or so it appears to me from where I sit in my monkish cubicle, counting the stars.

him against the MSMs, and cute little funny girl
Rachael Maddow, who set him..

All Rand Paul said was that there was one provision
of the Civil Right Acts that he didn’t believe was
neccessary because there was already a law on the books
that covered this. and that we are writing to many
redundant laws., lets enforce the ones we have
and that is all Rand Paul replied to Cute and Funny
Democrat apologist network MSNBC.

Thats is the only game Democrats know JD , the blame
game….don’t look at the inept governance….just say
“we’re better than republican”. maybe….not much

However, Paul who has preached, and preached peace
and not minding others business but taking
care of our own business first
offers a whole lot more than any present
democrat.
whether I vote for him or not…he offers
a whole lot more than the democrats do.
All you can do to fight him is throw racial slurs around
and about that have no backing.

I think Mr. Scheer hits many nails on their heads here, but the part I responded most favorably to was his observation that the Afghan War reflects many decades, if not centuries, of belligerent interferences with the affairs of sovereign nations, earning us the title, “imperialists” during the 60s. This point made by Scheer is awfully well taken. As I am a devotee of Mexican history, I know a bit about the invasion of Vera Cruz in 1914. It followed on the heels of the usurpation of the presidency by the assassin of Madero, Victoriano Huerta. To make certain Huerta would not receive embargoed munitions, Wilson sent troops to Vera Cruz, Mexico’s primary port with rail connections to the capital. Wilson said this was to “teach the Mexicans to elect good men.” One shipment of weapons aboard the “Ypiganga” simply avoided Vera Cruz and discharged its shipment of armaments in nearby Coatzacoalcos, and from there the Federales took them up the mountains. Although Huerta eventually fell, what was accomplished by this act of war?

I believe most of your regular posters know all the
names that I have been called since the first day I
started posting on TD about six or so months ago.

You will also recall, I didn’t respond with name calling
of my own…Most of the name calling was in response to
me attacking the Democrat Party, which I have been
registared for forty years. I just responde with irritating mutible posts, more bothersome than extra
name calling…

However, since ARDEE is the latest to spew out names
at me…..let me tell all what I think of him…
Ardee is a kiss assin racist slut…for the democrats

Finally! A demonstration of presidential committment and action in the face of a betrayal of duty by a disloyal senior officer. Truly, a moment worthy of recognition. Obama actually followed in the path which Harry S. Truman demonstrated when he dismissed Gereral Douglas MacArthur. He was unpopular in the eyes of the Republicans and much of the nation but he was right. If only Obama would continue to demonstrate that he has the will and the wit to become a great president.

Story of General McCrystal is a story of a soldier in command who is a high ranking officer. He befriended with some unknown person, a Journalist Michael Hasting of Rolling Stone Magazine and gleefully tried to be Chummy with him. Having an interaction with him for reasonably a long time; he took him to be his man of confidence and a friend to be.

Military men they do have a habit of using slangs, name calling and slurry tones in communication— which is quite common practice among them. McCrystal was one of those kind.

But; you may be sent home being loose lipped; if you are an American General.
I personally think that where as General Crystal conduct may not be called—- his conduct unbecoming of a General but his punishment is something which is a kill overdone.

Order of his termination as a top commander passed by Obama certainly does not reflect that justice has been done but most probably it is politically motivated termination.

Obama has made McCrystal a scapegoat to make up his personal credibility that he seems lost during his early period of turmoil and series of setbacks that America is facing at home as well as on US foreign policy front.

Mr. Scheer is among those journalists and opinion leaders who, by their vote for one of the two parties (and especially by a recommendation for the so-called “lesser evil”) have made themselves directly responsible of the most heinous crime against peace, committed by an overwhelming majority of our Idiot Citizens.

One would have expected some kind of apology, even if indirect. Instead, we are getting the same tired thing as everywhere, i.e. a dissertation about how to better perpetrate this, collective, crime and how to extirpate the criminal in chief without trying him or his predecessor.

If the Greens, Tea Baggers, soccer moms, and day care centers, facilitate Republicans gaining control of our government, I’ll blame them. In the last 40 years we’ve had 4 years of Democratic leadership, 8 years of conservative Democratic leadership, 2 years of Obama, and 26 years of Republican Laizzez Faire’ Reaganomics ( Actually 36 years of Reaganomics if you include Clinton and Obama.) Of course Obama’s version of Reaganomics is not good enough for Republicans; they accuse Obama of being a socialist. Republicans promote government subsidies for the rich and Corporations (Socialism for the rich – Corporatism/fascism.)

One good thing done by the Democrats was to pass legislation in the 70’s to reduce our dependence on foreign oil by 20%, by the year 2000. Reaganites reversed that legislation, and Reagan removed solar panels from the roof of the Whitehouse.

Republicans financed murderous forces in Central America, and Indonesia. Provided weapons of mass destruction to Saddam Hussein, Missiles for Iran, funded and provided logistics for Afghani Jihadist war lords, and Osama Bin Laden, even the Taliban got a few million bucks from George W. Let us not forget our courageous invasions of Grenada and Panama. Then there are the biggies, two destructions of Iraq, and invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Over a million dead, and millions displaced. These are not remote distractions, they involve very real human beings, half of them children.

Clearly, right wing, (Get it, RIGHT WING!) Democrats bear equal responsibility for the above actions, but those actions were most definitely right wing actions. Left wing Democrats opposed all of the above.

There’s much more, but I’m not going to waste my time trying to get you to see the light. Apparently it’s an exercise in futility.

If Republicans regain control of our government we can expect more of the same (With the support of right wing Democrats.)

This dust-up with McChrystal is a good thing. It’s these kinds of events that will lead Democrats to re-think our current policies, and cause them to move to the left. The Republicans will never turn away from this incredibly stupid folly, unless they are forced to by catastrophic events which will remove them from power.

We clearly have serious, serious problems. Hoping for a “Thumping” of Democrats by Republicans is an irrationally mad man’s solution to our problems.

entropy2: I wondered the same. Did McChrystal realize that our War in Afghanistan is doomed to fail and, wanting to avoid taking responsibiity for that disaster but choosing not to quit, decided to run his mouth in order to get sacked. Let’s jump into the future. After many, many more deaths and dismemberments, after the waste of more trillions of dollars, McChrystal may be remembered as the tough general who had been winning that Afghan War. He’ll be able to make lots and lots of dough with his “wisdomtry”.

P.S., Think Petraus (sp?) will be Republican candidate for POTUS in ‘12 or ‘16?

shame on that disgraceful general. What an idiot. The military should be sued for false advertising—I thought they were looking for a few good men. Our service men and women deserve better leadership than that.

ardee:
You say “the problem with Democracy is that it is a participatory sport”...
The only ones actually participating are the collusive Global Corpsters and Banksters such as the IMF, BIF (Bank for Intl Settlements - Hitler’s bank), and undoubtedly Goldman Sachs/Federal Reserve who, as you may remember, could’nt/wouldn’t account for TWO TRILLION when Bernanke was question by Sen. Bernie Sanders.
If this isn’t a Fascist Oligarchy, pray tell me what is?

I definitely believe that we are seeing a fascist oligarchy here, no disagreement. I posit that this would be impossible had the electorate been participating all along instead of being duped by cheap plastic toys purchased with usurious interests rates from all too easily obtainable credit cards.

The birth of democracy saw all citizenry meeting in the agora and deciding all issues by consent, hardly what we have here today….

and

elisalouisa, June 23 at 9:18 am #

The problem with Democracy is that it is a sport where big money wins Ardee. Constituents are handicapped as it is almost impossible to overcome the advantage that money provides in the electoral process. Power of the voter has to a great degree been nullified.

No argument here as well. Elections are certainly bought, just recalling Obama spending three quarters of a billion dollars to win an office that pays 400K/yr….But whose fault is all this? Ours. as we have all the power and fail to understand that or use it.

You a blinded by light JD….I know very well you a
person of very good intentions. Intentions don’t change
anything though. Actions change events.

So, who are you going to blame next time the Dems lose
the White House?
The Greens?
The Tea Baggers?
Soccar Moms?
Day Care Centers?
You will blame everything but the inept governance of
the Democrat Party that has not produced one good thing
in forty years…look around you.
The status quo ,it seems, as worked well for you, and
for me to, but not for our children , or those stuck
without jobs in the getto and the country. And certainly
not for those on the recieving end of our phosphorus
bombs, drones, machine guns, clouster bombs, and torture
prisons. NO, I can not and will not ever in my lifetime
support such nonsense and criminal activity, label it a
mini rant or anything you care. The Democrats are hanging
on by a thread due to past myths and inside their suit
is a well dressed republican.

Firefly - Re: WWII, hey, I did write that we “had lots of help!” We certainly agree: As a “military” power the U.S. has no equal. We SPEND more on our military than can be imagined; however, we accomplish very little in truly substantitive ways. We don’t gain land, resources, or rape and pillage as in the good-old-days. About the only sign that the US fought a war somewhere is that we leave our bases and troops there for decades after “nothing of value” happened.

firefly, - “Much of the US’s former allies are tired of playing this game where the rules and laws are arbitrary and often illogical.

-

Yes, often illogical. But it is my belief that the entire globe plays by the same rules rooted in human nature. - as opposed to “American” rules.

It seems clear to me, whether we like it or not, that the U.S. is looked on to lead by over 150 nations on the globe. And, again like it or not, it’s the U.S. that’s looked on for keeping the peace. - There must be a reason 150+ nation’s leaders repeatedly say it and expec the same.

I also believe the United States is expected to deliver after any and all global disasters. It’s not the United Nations, China, Russia, India, Britain, Saudi Arabia, or Turkey each of the above, and all others, (including clear enemies or antagonists) lean on for aid, comfort and security, when most in need.

One has to wonder aloud why the United States is sought after so heavily as interlocutors and arbitrators when disputes arise.

Most on this Web space can’t abide by anyone stating the most obvious. For all her human faults the United States has the best human rights record on the planet. Its wealth and stature has lifted billions out of poverty, illness and starvation.

-

Hamas

I think it’s clear that getting elected does not, necessarily, bring about democracy or a representative form of governance. I believe you would agree that history is awash in examples.

I can’t honestly recall hearing Yassin or Rantisi heralding democracy. Would you be able to site a few examples of “representative” forms of governance practiced by Hamas today?

Under capitalism the big banks, often referred to as “Wall Street” control things outside any kind of democratic process.

Wall Street has huge investments in oil and coal. They want to sell those things since they own them. Building huge solar arrays and transitioning our economy away from dependence on oil and coal conflicts with their business plans that have Wall Street heavily invested in fossil fuels.

So even though it is obvious that we need to make the switch to renewables it is not happening.

Heir Hitler:
Now there ya go slingin’ those stats all over again.
Just as we have to get off the Right Wing Left Wing
scenario, we gotta stop believin the statistical
CRAP the MSM wants to cram down our throats.
Instead of my giving u a bunch of stats and deetails
on abiotic oil, that’s your homework assignment…
Spend some time on it and I think u’ll be a little
surprised at what u find.
One little tidbit to chew (suck) on: How many plants
and dinosaurs do you think either lived or were mortified to the depths of 40, 50,000 feet or more?
And one more: how many trees, plants, animals do u think it would take to constitute the MASSIVE oceans
of oil that may run for a hundred miles or more in massive areas on the planet down at that depth?

Despite the recent “spin” coming out of the Middle East (lithium-McChrystal-whatever!) our lives haven’t changed a nickels worth. The war is just another sideshow distraction, presented for your continued amusement by the fascist financial entities who gutted the American and European economies, demanded a bailout that destroyed the wealth and lives of millions and are now pushing for cuts in social programs worldwide. (Poor people bad-rich people good.)

I’d like to see an America with a good energy, foreign, domestic, fiscal or other policy that allowed the chance for a recovery. Why isn’t it happening? Because, like the poor Afghans, we’re hostages to thugs. We need a major turnover in our elected officials, major transparent campaign finance reform, legal protection from financial hijinx and a new tax code where everyone pays fair taxes.

Without this we’re doomed to a nightmare future and possible extinction of the species.

“After the brilliant Rolling Stone article by Michael Hastings”…we get Robt. Scheer’s tagalong tripe. “President Barack Obama has no valid option”…so he continues to blow with the political winds. “The dozen outrageous anti-administration verbal gaffes which have been reported”…could just as easily have been a hundred dozen, as the outrageous policy gaffes of this anti-populist administration continue to proliferate. To be “anti-administration” may be a new politically-correct discrimination category, but it’s a good category to be in.
“The man in charge of the Afghanistan misadventure [is] an egotistical flake whose half-baked Afghan war-fighting strategy should never have been”... tolerated by the public in the first place – and that man is also in charge of all the other half-baked strategies in foreign and domestic misadventures, half-baked Barack. It is Obama’s “policy of counterinsurgency (COIN) that must be fired” along with the man who executizes its irrationality. “It was the 66-page McChrystal Report that provided Obama with the justification for escalating rather than ending the decade-long Afghanistan war”…and it is Obama who escalated it, not the 66-page report that served as a convenient pretext for the phony peace-prize prez. “The continuing arrogance of centuries of U.S. imperial policy”...is exemplified by the continuing arrogance of the egotistical Chickenhawk-in Chief. But since Scheer is always looking for scapegoats to cover up for his blameless Barack, McChrystal can take the fall for the unpardonable crime of being “anti-administration”.
But despite the “outrageous verbal gaffes” of McChrystal, Scheer goes on to use McChrystal’s own report as a source of analysis and criticism for his own objections to Barack’s war. “As McChrystal stated in his original report: ‘Afghans are frustrated and weary after eight years without evidence of the progress they anticipated.’” And Amerikans should be frustrated and weary after two years of Obama’s half-baked strategies of continuing imperial gaffes and Scheer’s dogged apologetics for it. “Our supposed ally, President [Hamid] Karzai, used his influence to delay the offensive, and the massive influx of aid”…provided by the arrogant Obama.
“The lionization of”… Obama in much of Sheer’s reporting which ignored his egregious role in letting off torturers and escalating imperial arrogance and secrecy…”has been a journalistic low point.” “No better was”…Scheer’s allusion to Obama as some sort of Christ-like figure “betrayed” by a ‘Judas’ McChrystal. For Scheer “remains a true believer in sinking deeper into the quagmire” of the Obama delusion.

Funny, Iraq has the fourth largest oil reserve in the world. Would you say Iraq controls it? It’s not about where it is, it’s about who controls it. From my original post: “China now controls the lions share of lithium in the world.”

And they’ll soon control more.

But let’s not get off topic. Tell us more of this ABIOTIC oil.

Ironic isn’t it? The more one takes his lithium, the less ABIOTIC oil he finds.

I think that the mere fact that General McChrystal was stupid enough to be so
candid with “Rolling Stone” is sufficient enough reason for not wanting him
making serious decisions - like sending young men and women to die in this
senseless war.

As you well know, I have been an outspoken and forceful critic of our nation’s criminal activity.

Your wish to see the Democrats get a “thumping” effectively turns this country over to the most criminal elements in this nation, who got us into this nightmare in the first place, and who will continue the murderous folly without qualm.

The other day I was having a beer at a local bar with the Lindbergh baby. After a few drinks, he opened up about his history and whereabouts for the past 78 years. He said that shortly after he’d been abducted by Bigfoot in 1932, he began working on his theory about ABIOTIC oil. Well, I was astonished by his candor and in order that I might clearly hear every word he had to say on this remarkable subject, I took off my tin foil hat and adjusted the tuner on my fillings. The story that unfolded over next few hours is nothing short of. . . <<For more information on ABIOTIC oil, please contact archivesDave in the refrigerator box behind the Holistic Wellness Clinic. WARNING: archivesDave may not be taking his lithium as prescribed. Expect rantings. Do not purchase coral calcium supplements from him; they’re are really bat droppings dipped in toenail polish.>>

If you go back and read the NYT starting Sept.12,2001 you will not find any
reference to ““Al-Qaeda’’ until Sept.17,2001. Bush/Cheney , the ‘‘Intelligence’‘
experts, and the corporate media then began a relentless campaign to
convince America of a monolithic “Al-Qaeda” and a “war on terror’’ to defeat
them. It is the Mother of all conspiracy theories.
Yet it is completely implausible that Muslims terrorists in 80 countries,who do
not share a common language or agenda are controlled from caves in
Afghanistan by a mastermind named Osama bin Ladin. Remember him?
Yet this is what Americans largely believe.Once you have bought into the
fiction that “Al-Qaeda ‘’ exists and needs to be defeated , the only issue is how
best to accomplish that. You are left with the false choices of “surges , staying
the course, torture, indefinite detention , adequate troop levels,drone attacks’’
etc. Why did we have to attack Afghanistan when 15 of the 9/11 hijackers came
from Saudi Arabia? All we have left are the same “Reasons’’ for attacking Iraq,
Spreading democracy,resources,revenge,demonstrating American resolve.

“G.W. Hitler:
Let’s see…who’s the sucker and the suckee here?
Your very own link boldly stated that Chile has HALF
of the world’s supply.
And oh, btw I trust u aren’t one of the ‘suckers’ who still believe in ‘peak oil supply’...
“Figures do lie and liars do figure”! I just LOVE
how statistics are thrown around by so called ‘experts’....Take the Gulf Oil supply: NO ONE, absolutely no one knows just how much ABIOTIC oil is
down there nor anyplace else in the world.
LITHIUM is in copious supplies around the planet just like abiotic oil….
Have one of these here all day suckers… “

Spoken like the biggest suck that ever sucked a suck. But how many licks does it take to get to the marketable center of lithium pop?

By mrfreeze, June 23 at 1:23 pm #
Do we actually have military leaders who can actually
WIN a war? The only war we have actually “won” in the
last 100 years was WWII (with lots of help).
President Obama: Just fire this bastard and move on!—————————————-
I agree with your sentiment, but just wish to correct
you on one little fact. The US didn’t win WWII, the
‘Allies’ won it, of which the US was an equal
partner.

Also, WWII wasn’t started by the US (which makes a
change) and the US didn’t enter the war for more than
3 years.

“It was the most widespread war in history, with
more than 100 million military personnel mobilised.
The major participants placed their ENTIRE economic,
industrial, and scientific capabilities at the
service of the war effort, erasing the distinction
between civilian and military resources.”

Of course, the US, the only country to have ever used
the atom bomb (twice), obliterated the cities of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki which ‘helped them win’.